Minimal Effects
by Uilleand
Summary: This is simply where I'm going to put all the Mass Effect strangeness that invades my brain. Anything posted here is in no way related to any Shephard in anything else I write for this fandom. As always, BioWare owns everything Mass Effect ... and my soul
1. Chapter 1

**ODE TO THE GETH**

010101110110010100100000011000010111001001100101001  
000000110000100100000010100110111000001100101011000  
11011**_We are a Spectre of seven_**1010001110010011001010010  
000001101111011001100010000001110011011001010111011  
001100101011011100010110000100000000011010000101001  
**_The many-headed monster hard coded into your nightmare._**01  
010001101000011001010010000001101101011000010110111  
001111001001011010110100001100101011000010110010001  
100101011001000010000001101101011011110110111001110  
011011101000110010101110010001000000110100001100001  
0111001001**_We stride between the stars_**1001000010000001100  
011011011110110010001100101011001000010000001101001  
011011100111010001101111001000000111100101101111011  
101010111001000100000011011100110100101100111011010  
000111010001101101011000010111001001100101001011100  
000110100001010010101110110010100100000011100110111  
010001110010011010010110010001100101001000000110001  
001100**_Cutting a swath of destruction to you_**101011101000111  
0111011001 01011001010110111000100000011101000110100  
0011001010010000001110011011101000110000101110010011  
1001100101100001000000000110100001010010000110111010  
1011101000111010001101001011011100110011100100000011  
0000100100000011100110111011101100001011101000110100  
0001000000110111101100110001000000110010001100101011  
1001101110100011100100111010101100011011101000110100  
101101111011011**_Defrag your circuits,_**10001000000111010001  
1011110010000001111001011011110111010100101110000011  
0100001010000011010000101001000100011001010110011001  
1100100**_Wipe your memory core clean of all sin_**1100001011001  
1100100000011110010110111101110101011100100010000001  
1000110110100101110010011000110111010101101001011101  
000111001**_We have no mercy_**1001011000010000000001101000  
0101001010111011010010111000001100101001000000111100  
1011011110111010101110010001000000110110101100101011  
0110101101111011100100111100100100000011000110110111  
10**_ We are sweat and blood and slime _**111001001100101001000  
0001100011011011000110010101100001011011100010000001  
1011110110011000100000011000010110110001101100001000  
0001110011011010010110111000101110000011010000101001  
0101110110010100100000011010000110000101110110011001  
0100100000011011100110111100100**_We are the code_**00001101  
1010110010101110010011000110111100100101100000011010  
0001010010101110110010100100000011000010111001001100  
1010010000001110**_We are the glitch in your mainframe_**011011  
10111011001010110000101110100001000000110000101101110  
01100100001000000110001001101100011011110110111101100  
10000100000011000010110111001**_We are the algorithm_**1001000  
01000000111001101101100011010010110110101100101001011  
10000011010000101000001101000010100101011101100101001  
00000011000010111001001100101001000000111010001101000  
01100**_We are the God, We are the extermination_**1010010000001  
10001101101111011001000110010100101110001000000000110  
10000101001010111011001010010000001100001011100100110  
010100100000011101000110_ **You may fight**_10000110010100100  
00001100111011011000110100101110100011000110110100000  
1000000**_We may bleed. We may die. We will weep_**110100101101  
11000100000011110010110111101110101011100100010000001  
1011010110000101101001011**_But we are eternal_**0111001100110  
01110010011000010110110101100101001011100000110100001  
01001010111011001010010000001100001011100100110010100  
10000**_Take one face, two more will grow_**00111010001101000011  
00101001000000110000101101100011001110110111101110010  
01101001011101000110100001101101001011100000110100001  
01001010111011001010010000001100001011100100110010100  
10000001110100011010000110010100100000010001110110111  
1011001000010110000100000010101110**_We are tears._**11001010  
01000000110000101110010011001010010000001110100011010  
00011001010010000001100101011110000111010001100101011  
10**_We are erratic rhythm and inefficient energy_**01001101101011  
01001011011100110000101110100011010010110111101101110  
00101110000011010000101000001101000010100101100011011  
11**_We are love and We are hate._**011101010010000001101101011  
00001011110010010000001100110011010010110011101101000  
01110100001011000000110100001010010101110110010100100  
00001101101011000010111100100100000011000100110110001  
10010101100101011001000010111000100000010101110110010  
1001000000110**_We are courage and fear and friendship_**1101011  
00001011110010010000001100100011010010110010100101110  
00100000010101110110010100100000011011010110000101111  
00100100000011101110110010101100101011100_ **Log off.**_00001  
0111000**_ Reboot._**001101000010100100001001110101011101000  
01000000111011101100101001000000110000101110010011001  
01001000000110010101110100011001010111001001101110011  
0000_ **We are skin and bone and scale.**_1011011000010111000001  
10100001010010101000110000101101011011001010010000001  
10111101101110011001010010000001100110011000010110001  
10110010100101100001000000111010001110111011011110010  
00000110110101101111011100100110010100100000011101110  
11010010110110001101100001000000110011101110010011011  
11011101110010111000001101000010100000110100001010010  
1011**_The protection fault will breach your scans_**10110010100100  
00001100001011100100110010100100000011101000110010101  
10000101110010011100110010111000001101000010100101011  
10110010100100000011000010111001001001010010000001100  
10101110010011100100110000101110100011010010110001100  
10000001110010011010000111100101110100011010000110110  
10010000001100001011011100110010000100000011010010110  
111001100101**_We are the fire that melts circuits_**01100110011001  
10011010010110001101101001011001010110111001110100001  
00000011001010110111001100101011100100110011101111001  
00101110000011010000101001010111011001010010000001100  
00101110010011001010010000001101100011011110111011001  
10010100100000011000010110111001100100001000000101011  
10110010100100000011000**_You face the error._**01011100100110  
01010010000001101000011000010111010001100101001011100  
00011010000101001010111011001010010000001100001011100  
10011001010010000001100011011011110111010101110010011  
00001011001110110010100100000011000010110111001100100  
001000000110**_You face the flesh, the wet, the dirty._**01100110010  
10110000101110010001000000110000101101110011001000010  
00000110011001110010011010010110010101101110011001000  
11100110110100001101001011100000010111000001101000010  
10000011010000101001001100011011110110011100100000011  
01111011001100110011000101110001000000101001001100101  
**_You face the virus_**01100010011011110110111101110100001011  
10000011010000101001010111011001010010000001100001011  
10010011001010010000001110011011010110110100101101110  
00100000011000010110111001100100001000000110001001101  
11101**_The Trojan horse of your ending_**101110011001010010000  
00110000101101110011001000010000001110011011000110110  
00010110110001100101001011100000110100001010010101000  
11010000110010100100000011100000111001001101111011101  
00011001010110001101110100011010010110111101101110001  
00000011001100110000101110101011011000111010000100000  
01**_You are obsolete_**1010010111001100100000011000110110111  
10110110101101001011011100110011100100000011001100110  
11110111001000100000011110010110111101110101001011100  
00011010000101001010111011001010010000001100001011100  
1001**_You are rust, you are invalid_**1001010010000001110100011  
01000011001010010000001100110011010010111001001100101  
00100000011101000110100001100001011101000010000011011  
01011001010110110001110100011100110010000001100011011  
01001011100100110001101110101011010010111010001110011  
00101110000011010000101000001101000010100101100101101  
11101**_We are Shepard_**11010100100000011001100110000101100  
01101100101001000000111010001101000011001010010000001  
10010101110010011100100110111101110010001011100000110  
10000101001011001011011110111010100100000011001100110  
000101100011011**_ And we _**0010100100000011101000110100001  
10010100100000011001100110110001100101011100110110100  
00010110000100000011101000110100001100101001000000111  
01110110010101110100**_are _**001011000010000001110100011010  
00011001010010000001100100011010010111001001110100011  
11001001011100000110100001010010110010110111101110101  
0010000001100110011**_coming_**0000101100011011001010010000  
00111010001101000011001010010000001110110011010010111  
00100111010101110011001011000010000000001101000010100  
10 **_for_**101000110100001100101001000000101010001110010011  
01111011010100110000101101110001000000110100001101111  
01110010011100110110010100100000011011110110011000100  
000011**_you_**11001011011110111010101110010001000000110010  
10110111001100100011010010110111001100111001011100000  
11010000101000001101000010100101100101101111011101010  
01000000110000101110010011001010010000001101111011000  
10011100110110111101101100011001010111010001100101001  
01110000011010000101001011001011011110111010100100000  
01100001011100100110010100100000011100100111010101110  
01101110100001011000010000001111001011011110111010100  
10000001100001011100100110010100100000011010010110111  
00111011001100001011011000110100101100100001011100000  
11010000101001010111011001010010000001100001011100100  
11001010010000001010011011010000110010101110000011000  
01011100100110010000101110000011010000101001010111011  
00101001000000110000101110010011001010010000001100011  
01101111011011010110100101101110011001110010000001100  
11001101111011100100010000001111001011011110111010100  
1011100000110100001010


	2. Chapter 2

**To be a good soldier, you must love the army. To be a commander, you must be willing to order the death of the thing you love. — General Robert E. Lee**

_I've taken up enough of your time _

… _time time time time time time time…_

_I think of losing you, and I can't stand it._

_No…_

_Finally, a reason to look forward to physical traning._

_No …_

_The galaxy will go on, but you and I … we're important now._

_NO…._

_Do you make a habit of getting this personal with everyone … ma'am?_

"**No!"**

Plexi fragments and glass shards fell from her fingertips with blood.

_No no no no no no no no…_

The fragile screen of her navicomputer shuddered and sparked around the fist-sized hole that Commander Kir Shepard had left in its centre. Personal logs swam and darkened –_and disappeared_ – as she watched.

"Commander?" Ashley Williams' voice quavered like the lost data.

"Yes, Chief?"

She didn't turn around.

"Do…do you have a minute to talk?"

"Not a good time, Chief."

Blood dripped on the smooth floor – _tap tap tap_ – and pooled, crimson, around shattered glass.

"Yes, I … Shepard … Commander …" Williams trailed off. "…I just wanted to say I'm sorry, ma'am. I…it should have been me, Shepard. You should have left me there. Kaidan had armed the nuke. It would have gone off, no matter what … he said so …"

Her commander didn't turn around, nor breathe, as far as Williams could tell. So, she took a deep breath and …well … soldiered on. "A big guy like him, though … he's gotta be with God, now, right, Shepard? He's in a better place now…"

Shepard's hunched form straightened, her tightly bound black hair gleaming in red LED output.

"You're right, Williams…" Shepard's strong voice, barely a whisper, cracked and barren, slipped through the darkness.

"… you're right … it should have been you…"

And, in the darkness, hearts broke and bled.

_Tap. Tap. Tap._

"The doctor should see to that hand, ma'am." And the door hissed closed behind her.

And her commander stared into the dark space where a dim, blue-white light should have glowed …and waited … for nothing.

**There are no unwounded soldiers – José Narosky**

_Space is so empty_

… _empty empty empty empty empty empty empty__…._


	3. Wired

010010010111010000100000011010000111010101110010011101000111001100101100001000000111000001101100011001010110000101110  
011011001010010111000101110001011100100111101101000001011000010000001000111011011110110010000101110001011100010111001  
101001011101000010000001101000011101010111001001110100011100110010111000101110

_Fssshhhhhxxxxxxxx_

:blip:

………Name …. Andreas Anthony

………Date of birth …. July 12, 2145, Earth, Sol System

_White-capped green mountains reached up to touch the sapphire sky. The air was crisp, scented with pine, cedar and rain. Water droplets danced off  
skin, and clung to eyelashes. So much beauty..._

_Fssssssssshhhhhxxxxxxxx_

… clearing extraneous data … defragging neural network … extrapolating identity …

:blip: ……. Species: Human

:blip: ……..Designation: Seismic Interpreter. ExoGenie Corporation

:blip:…….. Assignment: Trebin, Antaeus Cluster, Hades Gamma Star System

"_God, this place is as dry as a Krogan sperm bank."_

"_Hah! Why do hydrologists have one of those sayings for every occasion?... Dare ya to repeat that in front of Redon."_

"_Shut the hell up, Anthony. You think I got a death wish?"_

"_Well, you're here, aren't you?"_

"_Hey, I'm here to expand the horizon of mankind's destiny."_

"_Sure you are, Kopach. You're here because your wife caught you with that Asari dancer. Actually, maybe you do have a death wish."_

"_Ah, she'll cool down, eventually. How do you do it, Anthony?"_

"_Do what?"_

"_Keep your marriage going and trek to the edges of the galaxy all the damn time?"_

"_I'd say it's because I trek to the edges of the galaxy all the damn time."_

"_Bull. I've seen you. At the end of every assignment you're like a kid before summer vacation, can't wait to get back to the old ball and chain. In  
10 years working with you, I've never seen you hit the clubs, or even look sideways at a skirt like Katie Stark."_

"_Well, Maureen's different and … Stark? You're kidding? Jesus, Kopach, you didn't??"_

_Her skin is perfect. She hates her freckles, but I love how they make her look like a child at the oddest times, like when she's giving Colin hell. Then,  
she catches me staring and blushes. I can see those freckles even in the night, when her face hovers over mine; just before she kisses me … then I  
can't see anything. But I can feel her. _

01001001001000000110001101100001011011100010011101110100001000000111001101100101011001010010000100100000010011010110000101  
11010101110010011001010110010101101110001011000010000001110111011010000110010101110010011001010010000001100001011100100110  
01010010000001111001011011110111010100111111

_Ffffsshhxxxxshssshhhhhhhhhhhhssssssssssssssssss …_

:blip:…removing temporary files …

_The 3D seismic survey will form the backbone of the data we need to carry out a successful evaluation of the prospectivity of the vast area of Trebin. The  
first emphasis is on acquiring a regional grid of seismic data, which will help us to update our understanding of the geology of the entire planet. The next  
phase will be focused on maturing prospects as potential locations for exploration mining and drilling._

"_Sir? I thought this was about terraforming and colonization…"_

"_Of course it is, Anthony, but no-one's going to want to colonize a barren planet unless there are some natural resources available for excavation and trade.  
We just need you to tell us if our initial scans are correct, if there's enough nickel and silver to make this whole project worthwhile…"_

"_Sir, if it's not worthwhile, why are we conducting the ice-mass impact test?"_

"_Oh, that's being paid for by the Alliance. No way would the board of governors have backed it otherwise."_

"_You're not listening. I'm trying to tell you that if we carry out the test now, the results will be completely unreliable! We haven't been able to get a GPS  
read for weeks, and communications satellites are unreliable at best. Until we figure out what's messing with our instruments, this is a waste of time and money!"_

"_Ah, it's taxpayer money, Anthony, no concern of ours …"_

:blip: … downloading file for future reference … filed under 'ExoGeni' … cross-referenced to 'Saren' …

"_Jesus, Kopach. What do you think it is?"_

"_Do I look like a xeno-engineer, Andreas?"_

"_I don't know, what does a xeno-engineer look like?"_

"_Hopefully curvy as hell with a real tight uniform."_

"_Do you ever get your mind out of your pants, Kopach?"_

"_Not if I can help it … you rockheads are all the same. You'd rather look at a chunk of granite than a fine ass…"_

"_I'm a seismologist. I like watching rock fall apart."_

"_Yeah, whatever … Didn't you say you took some Prothean Studies in post-secondary? Have you ever seen anything like this?"_

"_Just a couple of undergrad classes as options, but this doesn't look like any of the technology we managed to get our hands on. The materials aren't even close  
… actually, it looks more like some of the stuff I saw in the medieval chapter in my Earth History classes…"_

"_Yeah, I was thinkin' that, too. I sure hope these didn't serve the same purpose. I'd like to think Vlad the Impaler is a character unique to our history."_

"_Oh, c'mon Kopach … can't you just imagine a Krogan vampire?"_

"_Hah! I don't even wanna think about that…"_

:blip:… data saved … filed under 'species – human' …

"_Anthony! Have you seen Redon?"_

"_No, haven't seen him since yesterday. What you want with him?"_

"_Goddamn Krogan was supposed help us move the __geophone cable spool. EG probably figured they could save money on equipment if security could also do  
heavy lifting. No way in hell any of us are gonna be able to move that thing."_

"_Last I saw, he took a crawler out to see if he couldn't figure out what's messing with our systems."_

"_Shit! He'd better come back soon. There are actually cloud formations to the east! If we don't tag some results, EG's gonna hand us our asses…"_

:blip: … irrelevant data … erasing …

"_How's the kid?"_

"_Colin? Oh, he's great. At the ripe old age of 13, he's decided he's going to join Alliance Military."_

"_Oh, I bet Maureen just loves that!"_

"_She's convinced he's not serious, that he's only doing it to aggravate her."_

:blip: … irrelevant data … erasing …

_He's so tall, he can already look me in the eye. Thank God he looks more like his mother. Those red curls piss him off, but you can already see the girls looking  
his way. Sometimes I can't believe that's my son. _

:blip: … irrelevant data … erasing …

"_Kopach?? Kopach!! Where the hell are you? They're Geth, Kopach! Sonofabitch!! Get the fuck out of here!"_

:blip: … readying nano injection …

_Reggie Kopach's body hovers above me, like some grotesque magician's trick. The alien spike emerges from his chest, a gaping cavern in his body. But there's  
no blood. Why is there no blood? His hand. Fuck. His hand is moving. He's still alive! Oh, fuck me …_

:blip: … 96.2 per cent of species: human body weight calculated … organic elements …oxygen 65.0 per cent … carbon 18.5 per cent … hydogen 9.5 per cent …  
nitrogen 3.2 per cent … further 3.9 per cent equals elements present in the form of salts … calcium 1.5 per cent … phosphorus 1.0 per cent … potassium 0.4  
per cent … sulfur 0.3 per cent …sodium 0.2 per cent … chlorine 0.2 per cent … magnesium 0.1 per cent … iodine 0.1 per cent … iron 0.1 per cent … trace  
elements compose less than 0.5 per cent of total body weight … detecting trace elements … chromium … cobalt … copper … fluorine … manganese … molybdenum  
… selenium … tin … vanadium … zinc … harvesting …

_When I was five, __I found a bird. It was dead, lying in my mother's flower bed. The cat must have left it there. Even at five, I knew it was very dead – the eyes were  
gone from its little black face – but the body rippled and moved as if it was alive, the skin rolling beneath the stick I used to poke at it. The next day I watched as  
maggots poured from its beak … _

:blip: … deleted … further decontamination required … ident erase …

_In the mining cavern__, there is no up or down, only rock and rock and rock and rock... Maggots under its skin. Crawling. Twitching. Why? Wire needles burrow through  
its face, peeling back skin and muscle …_

:blip:… organic compounds discarded …

:blip: … seismic activity detected … _footsteps? I like watching rock fall apart_ … activate frontal assault sequence … target acquired … _At the ripe old age of 13, he's decided  
he's going to join Alliance Military …_ identify: Commander Shepard/Alliance Military/Citadel Spectre …

"Jesus, Commander, more husks down here! Take cover!"

010010010010000001101100011011110111011001100101011001000010000001101000011001010111001000100000001011100010111000101110001000000100  
11010110000101110101011100100110010101100101011011100010000100100001

"Take them down, Alenko!"

:blip:


End file.
